100 Greatest Jazz Songs of All Time Updated on June 30, 2016
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Greatest Jazz Songs of All Time This is my list of the 100 top jazz songs of all time. Before I go any further, I need to make a couple of things clear: First, I really love jazz music. It is an important part of my everyday life and I cannot begin to imagine my existence without jazz in it. However, I am not what you would call a purist. I firmly believe that it can be created by artists not traditionally labeled as jazz artists. For example, as you’ll notice I include a couple of artists that might raise a few eyebrows on my list, artists like Jeff Beck and Frank Zappa, who are usually classified in the rock-n'-roll genre. But the cuts I have selected from them are indeed jazz cuts, brimming with the very same creativity, passion, and inventiveness that made Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, and W.C. Handy the icons that they are. Jazz is a music that knows no limits, no boundaries. Following such logic, I have liberally placed tunes from “avant-garde” artists on this list. I believe that slightly eccentric creators such as Sun Ra and Pharoah Sanders are every bit as important to jazz as are Billie Holiday and Dave Brubeck. This is not a list that was thrown together lightly, either. It was stitched together one song at a time, minute by minute, hour by hour. It was written, rewritten, and revised again. Because as much as I love jazz, narrowing it down to just the top 100 songs was almost too limiting a task. I’m sure there are plenty of worthwhile tracks that I failed to include. I know that when I listen to jazz, just like any other form of music, the songs I decide to play are largely dependent upon my mood at that given time. Anyway, enough idle chatter. Here is my compilation of the top 100 jazz songs of all time. Enjoy.
1. “So What” – Miles Davis Miles. Trane. Cannonball. Evans. Chambers. Cobb. The greatest lineup in jazz history. ‘Nuff said.
2. “My Favorite Things” – John Coltrane This interpretation of the Rodgers/Hammerstein classic tune turned on a whole new audience to the brilliance of John Coltrane. It also offered a glimpse of the path that Trane was about to embark upon.
3. “Take Five” – Dave Brubeck The first jazz instrumental to sell a million copies. A song everyone, jazz fans or not, have heard. Timeless.
4. “Acknowledgement” – John Coltrane Trane’s spiritual awakening and the start of his ultimate quest. One of the most powerful, transcendent songs ever. This is true gospel.
5. “Birdland” – Weather Report An excellent introduction to the late Jaco Pastorious. This tune pushed Weather Report to the forefront of the fusion movement and into the mainstream.
6. “Freddie Freeloader” – Miles Davis Another stone-cold classic from the best jazz album (Kind of Blue) of all time. Never to be duplicated, this is jazz at its highest form.
7. “Psalm” – John Coltrane Closes out one of the most important albums ever, regardless of genre, on a plateau others could never hope to scale. Monumental.
8. “Strange Fruit” – Billie Holiday One of the most chilling and haunting, yet utterly compelling, songs of all time. Lady Day poured her heart, soul, and every fabric of her being into this cut.
9. “Salt Peanuts” – Dizzy Gillespie If there were a Mount Rushmore of jazz, Dizz would be carved in stone. And this tune would be playing in the background. Go cat, go!
10. “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” – Cannonball Adderley Proving there was life after Miles Davis, Cannonball hooked up with then little-known composer/keyboardist Joe Zainwaul and churned out this soulful masterpiece. Who says jazz ain’t got no soul?
11. “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” – Charles Mingus One of the cornerstone songs of jazz, from one of its most covered composers. Mingus could do it all. And he influenced them all.
12. “Chameleon” – Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters Funk. Funky. Funkiest. This cut molded jazz into something different. Something more urban and groovy.
13. “Straight Life” – Freddy Hubbard After the triumph that was Red Clay, Hubbard proved that he had plenty more left in his trick bag on this 17-minute cut. He swung for the fences and hit a grand-slam with this one.
14. “The Creator Has a Master Plan” – Pharaoah Sanders Thirty-two-and-a-half minutes of pure, freeform bliss. Enough to induce a deep, fulfilling trance-like state. An under-appreciated artist and song.
15. “Blue in Green” – Miles Davis More from one of the most incredible pieces of art ever fashioned – Kind of Blue. Miles at his most inventive.
16. “One o’Clock Jump” – Count Basie Superb joint from one of the masters of swing. Many were the imitators, yet none could touch the magic of Count Basie and His Orchestra. Then or now.
17. “Bumpin’ on Sunset” – Wes Montgomery The one, the only Wes Montgomery burning up the fretboard without a pick. He set the standard for those who chose to follow.
18. "Naima” – John Coltrane A powerfully beautiful and tender ballad named for Trane’s then wife. This is where Coltrane started to come into his own, composition-wise. As this one proved the sky was the limit.
19. “Back at the Chicken Shack” – Jimmy Smith A slice of sweaty Hammond B-3 heaven from the best of the bunch. He created a template that a thousand jam bands would follow 40 years after the fact.
20. “Mister Magic” – Grover Washington, Jr. Gone way before his time, this cut is a prime example of the way Grover Washington, Jr. could create a wave and ride it all the way to the sunset. Smooth jazz that was anything but smooth. 21. “Giant Steps” – John Coltrane 22. “In a Silent Way” – Miles Davis 23. “Dolphin Dance” – Herbie Hancock 24. “In N’ Out” – Joe Henderson 25. “Resolution” – John Coltrane 26. “Alone Together” – Grant Green 27. “St. Louis Blues” – W.C. Handy 28. “Rocket Number Nine Take off for the Planet Venus” – Sun Ra and his Arkestra 29. “Tipitina” – Professor Longhair 30. “Breakfast Feud” – Charlie Christian 31. “Naguine” – Django Reinhardt 32. “It Might as Well be Spring” – Sarah Vaughan 33. “Captain Fingers” – Lee Ritenour 34. “Science Funktion” – Donald Byrd 35. “Blue Rondo A La Turk” – Dave Brubeck 36. “A Remark You Made” – Weather Report 37. “Black Satin” – Miles Davis 38. “Just the Two of Us” – Grover Washington, Jr. 39. “Minnie the Moocher” – Cab Calloway 40. “Aerial Boundaries” – Michael Hedges 41. “Red Clay” – Freddie Hubbard 42. “Round Midnight” – Thelonious Monk 43. “Bright Size Life” – Pat Metheny 44. “Maiden Voyage” – Herbie Hancock 45. “Portrait of Tracy” – Jaco Pastorious 46. “Mood Indigo” – Duke Ellington 47. “Body & Soul” – Coleman Hawkins 48. “Moanin’” – Art Blakey 49. “Straight, No Chaser” – Thelonious Monk 50. “Right Off” – Miles Davis 51. “Jelly Roll Blues” – Jelly Roll Morton 52. “Stratus” – Billy Cobham 53. “(They call me) Dr. Professor Longhair” – Professor Longhair 54. “Sun Goddess” – Ramsey Lewis 55. “Miles Beyond” – Mahavishnu Orchestra 56. “Fables of Faubus” – Charles Mingus 57. “Room 335” – Larry Carlton 58. “Epistrophy” – Thelonious Monk 59. “The Girl From Ipanema” – Getz/Gilberto 60. “Lonely Woman” – Ornette Coleman 61. “The Perfect Man” – Sun Ra and his Arkestra 62. “Hello, Dolly” – Louis Armstrong 63. “Chasin’ the Bird” – Charlie Parker 64. “Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy” – Return to Forever 65. “God Bless the Child” – Billie Holiday 66. “Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers” – Jeff Beck 67. “Tea for Two” – Art Tatum 68. “Volunteered Slavery” – Rahsaan Roland Kirk 69. “Pharoah’s Dance” – Miles Davis 70. “A Night in Tunisia” – Sonny Rollins 71. “Pursuance” – John Coltrane 72. “Satin Doll” – Duke Ellington 73. “Speak no Evil” – Wayne Shorter 74. “Chitlins Con Carne” – Kenny Burrell 75. “Potato Head Blues” – Louis Armstrong 76. “My Feet Can’t Fail Me Now” – Dirty Dozen Brass Band 77. “Cover Girl” – Larry Coryell 78. “Willow Weep for Me” – Wes Montgomery 79. “A Long Drink of the Blues” – Jackie McLean 80. “Three Views of a Secret” – Jaco Pastorious 81. “Places and Spaces” – Donald Byrd 82. “When You’re in Love” – Horace Silver 83. “Lazy River” – Pete Fountain 84. “Tones for Elvin Jones” – John McLaughlin 85. “Icarus” – Winter Consort 86. “Bemsha Swing” – Thelonious Monk 87. “Moon Tune” – Bob James/David Sanborn 88. “Eternal Child” – Chick Corea’s Elektric Band 89. “Out of the Night” – Brian Melvin Trio 90. “School Days” – Stanley Clarke 91. “Five Hundred Miles High” – Stan Getz 92. “Hog Callin’ Blues” – Charles Mingus 93. “My Funny Valentine” – Gerry Mulligan/Chet Baker 94. “Race with Devil on Spanish Highway” – Al DiMeola 95. “Moritat” – Sonny Rollins 96. “Son of Mr. Green Genes” – Frank Zappa 97. “Big Chief” – Professor Longhair 98. “Anonymous Skulls” – Medeski, Martin & Wood 99. “The Hong Kong Incident” – Jing Chi 100. “Hamp’s Hump” – Galactic
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